Single rack unit (1 RU) switches, or pizza boxes, are ubiquitous in offices and businesses and there has been a push by manufacturer's to add more and more features while driving down costs. Current 1 RU switches provide 48 ports for connecting to end-devices. Additionally, the units must provide uplinks to connect to backbone or core routers or switches. Generally, two uplinks are required to provide redundancy.
The dimensions of the front face of a single RU switch are only 1.75″×17.5″. The actual space available for 48 ports and uplinks is smaller because the product itself includes a bezel facing that includes graphics and other items comprising a user interface that is similar to previous products.
Previous uplink I/O devices, such as the GBIC (Gigabit Interface Converter) or the SFP (Small Form Factor Pluggable) module, have a relatively small form factor and sufficient space is available on the front face of the 1 RU switch for both the 48 ports and the dual uplinks. However, with the advent of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GE) the uplink I/O device size has increased.
One type of 10 GE uplink I/O device is the MSA (Multi-Source Agreement) X2, which is defined in the X2 MSA specification which is hereby incorporated by reference. The X2 system utilizes a side rail support system which is mounted on a PCB (printed circuit board) with a connector disposed to receive the connector end of the X2 transceiver. The X2 transceiver is inserted into a switch and guided by the rail system so the X2 transceiver connector mates with the PCB connector. The module includes a bezel on the front which is used to hold a gasket for EMI protection.
Because of the increased size of the X2 10 GE I/O device it has not been possible to provide two 10 GE uplinks in a 48 port 1 RU switch.